yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] binary0110:
Here's how:

In the January 06 guide from the O2 shop on page 33 the O2 XDA Exec is listed as free on any business tariff of £45 and above and £99.99 on all other business tariffs (this brochure is freely available from any O2 shop in case the O2 staff don't believe you when you ask for this deal - otherwise, a copy of the relevant page is attached to this message).

The cheapest available business tariff is the standalone Data 5 tariff at £9.40 per month inc VAT (£8 per month ex VAT) which has a minimum term committment of 12 months. Furthermore, if you trade in an old phone when you get the XDA Exec then you will receive a cheque back for £50 within 28 days.

Minimum term cost:

O2 XDA Exec: £99.99

Data 5 tariff (£9.40 x 12 months): £112.80

Trade-in old phone: -£50

Total: £162.79

So for £162.79 you get a Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC with VGA screen/camera/keyboard/bluetooth/wifi/GPRS/3G/GSM mobile. I don't think a deal like this is going to happen again within the next few years ;)
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] jdee246:
err... don't you have to take out a voice tariff as well as a data tariff?
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] binary0110:
No you don't, the data tariffs can be taken out as standalone tariffs.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] jdee246:
So a good deal as long as you are happy having a phone that can't make voice calls.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] binary0110:
Well, you could always use a different SIM card in the phone :wink:

Edit: since the phone is supplied unlocked you could even use a SIM card from a different provider.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] belfast-biker:
So, you need to factor in the cost of the voice calls and rental on the other sim anyhow?

Doesn't seem like such a blistering deal then.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] jah:
@B Biker, its a great deal if you have a contract already (and therefore a SIM card) as your capital cost of the Exec is less than £200 - not bad given the cheapest SIM free deal is £550. But if you want a normal 12 month voice (and perhaps data) contract then you'll need to shop around. Please note that on the Data36 tariff (£15 per month and 36MB of data) voice calls are at the Pay as You rate but for Data 5 you cannot have voice calls at all. And if you're really smart you could buy the Exec on the Data 5 tariff, sell it on eBay for £400 and have a near £200 profit which you can use towards the real phone you want.

;)
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] belfast-biker:
The Exec is everything I need in a phone.... there's nowt it can't do... :)
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] binary0110:
The point is that the maximum you would have to pay for the device is £162.79. What SIM card you decide to use with the phone is entirely up to you. It is now possible (with cashback deals) to sign up to a contract which costs nil over the minimum contract period (see http://www.mobileswizard.co.uk/12monthsfree.asp?free=12 for examples). So, if you were to sign up to such a contract, you would be able to use it in the O2 XDA Exec and just keep the original O2 SIM (connected to the Data 5 tariff) safely stored for the next 12 months after which you cancel the contract (since this is the minimum period for which you must remain connected to O2).

I hope that helps to explain why this is such a good deal.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] mda2k:
well, I think 99% of the people who read your first post understood why this is a DAMN good deal ...
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] Melty:
Yeah I agree. Buy the device for £162 and you have an awesome 3G PDA for a tiny price! 8)
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] colinc57:
if you ask ( alot) tyou can get voice added to data5 ( 20p pm- no etra line rental)
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] voodoo_nostromo:
Do you need to own a company to buy this offfer? The tariffs are refered to as "business". With the previous offer (for 293 punds) the Data 5 tariffs could be taken out without company.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] belfast-biker:
It's truly not a bad deal (£99 price is v.good), but relies on you having an old mobile phone for trade in in the 1st place, and if you use a lot of voicecalls like I do, you've got to go and organise a voice deal somewhere anyhow*, and pay for that. And the data5 tariff, taken by itself, is shockingly bad value.

Personally more than happy to pay £35 a month for 500mins, doubled for 1st 6 months.

But your offer isn't a bad deal by any measure.

* Although those free rental deals look interesting - might go for one of those for my mum. What's the catch - the first one says it's £30 a month from month 13 onwards - what's the minimum period in that deal?
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] belfast-biker:
I work for O2 B2B, and one stipulation that is made before we can offer a business deal is that the customer tells us that they work for the business and at least a portion of the calls to be made on the handset are related to the business. So, for example, we could even sell to an employee, as long as they told us they had permission from the owner of the business, and his or her DOB. As you'd imagine, quite a lot of this must be taken on faith.

We've been pulled a few times for hinting to customers to say the right thing too.. :) "Do you even make the odd work related call, say, if you're running late and need to speak to the boss to let him know"?

Otherwise, we have to pass, and let B2C deal with it.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] binary0110:
The point is that if the phone is unlocked, it doesn't really matter how good or bad the data 5 tariff is - you don't have to use the O2 contract with the XDA Exec. You could just store the O2 SIM card away safely, forget about it for 12 months and then cancel the contract after that. Meanwhile, you could use any SIM card you like in the O2 XDA Exec which (after taking into account the amount of line rental paid for the contract) will have only cost you £162.97. In effect, you have bought a SIM free HTC Universal/I-mate Jasjar/Qtek 9000/MDA Pro/XDA Exec/SPV M5000 (whatever you want to call it - the hardware is the same!) for only £162.97.

On the other hand, if you were to choose to get the phone on a £35 per month tariff on a 12 month contract, you would have to pay at least a minimum of £420 for the phone (i.e. 12 x £35) not to mention the cost to buy the phone in the first place (which would be £99.99 anyway since the line rental is less than £45 per month) so you will end up spending £469.99 (assuming you trade-in an old phone for £50 chequeback) over the initial 12 month contract period. Given that it is now possible to sign up to a contract with 12 months free line rental via cashback with ~200 free minutes/texts per month (which I will explain below), this is a false economy.

The minimum term for those contracts is 12 months (after which you can cancel your contract and get a new one). The way this works is that you send back copies of your bills as you receive them (e.g. after 4 months, 8 months or 12 months of starting the contract - to prove that you are still on the original contract) to the mobile phone retailer who will reimburse you (usually by cheque) to cover the cost of the line rental which you have so far paid to the mobile phone operator.

Thus, if you were to go with the £162.97 deal for the O2 XDA Exec which I originally posted, you could subsequently sign up to a 12 month free rental cash back deal and use the SIM card provided in the XDA Exec. Yes, it's a bit of a hassle, but I think it's worth it to save hundreds of pounds.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] acetuk:
I signed up for my Exec just before Christmas in a local O2 shop of a Data36 tarif - I was never asked if this was for a business or not.

I was told at the time that I could make and receive calls but I would be paying 30p / minute everytime I called out. That turned out to be incorrect and after five calls to various parts of O2 they agreed to turn on the call option without the need for a further voice tarif. The calls are also a little cheaper at 25p / minute when I make them.

So I am paying £17 / month for Data36 with option to make calls and texts at cost but also obviously receive calls and texts.

That's not too bad I don't think.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] jah:
B-Biker, sorry mate I have a different view. My XDA Exec is not a good phone. Its a great PDA/mini tablet with fantastic connectivity but its not really as good as my Nokia 9500 or my older Treo 650 when it comes to phone functionality and call quality/reception. Also I can't get the BT headset volume to increased (tried 3 BT headsets).

I purchased a XDA Exec on the business Data 5 tariff also in early October and I was not asked any questions about usage etc (total price at that time was £293).
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] belfast-biker:
Different views are fine, it is christmas after all! :)

I do find the sound quality easily a match for my last fone, a decent Sony Ericsson, and *much* better than my JAM.

My cheapie (£18 a year or so ago) AMB-02 BT headset is also plenty loud, which ones have you tried?

We can agree that it is a mindblowingly good mini mini laptop thing though... :)
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] LinuxGeek:
My understanding of the data tariff only are that you can make voice calls too with them at the rate of 25pence per minutes with nothing bundled ! Text messages at 12pence per minute.

Have a look:

http://www.o2.co.uk/business/tariffs/datatariffs/0,,203,00.html

go to above link and at the bottom of page have a look at data tariffs pricelist (a PDF file)
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] acetuk:
I'd just watch that.

I was clearly told by the shop assistant that I would be able to make calls. But when I finally had chance to do it (Christmas day of all days!) I found that the call would be dropped immediately.

All calls in also would be dropped.

Texts were working fine though.

When I called O2 customer services they told me that voice calls were not part of the Data tarif so were not allowed. Having now discussed this with them they are will to do it at the prices you have quoted. I should go live with it in a couple of days.

So my advice is to ask the question and test it on any Data contract you take out ASAP. Then start calling if it isn't happening for you.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] :
Wow, this is one heck of a deal :shock: :D ... does anyone know if they might have simlocked the new batch of Execs, hence this great deal ?
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] belfast-biker:
I've been mucked around slightly recently by O2, b4 one individual within the company sorted me out, and the concept of having on the one hand a high speed 384K data tariff with no voice calls, and on the other hand a voice tariff, with data restricted to 128K, is just plain dumb.

It's like selling a car than can go on motorways, or local roads, but not both. No possible reason for doing so. In my case, they gave in to my needs (upgrade from 128K to 384K data on my voice line) purely because I shouted loud enough and was annoying and persistent, and that's not how customer service should work.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] acetuk:
I can only agree 100% your comments - I was lucky to get to imdividual in O2 business who seemed to really want to help me.

At one stage he told me he would call me back within 30 minutes and to be honest I didn't believe him.

But he did. And he offered me exactly what I wanted which was for my tarrif to be what they had sold to me.

This is my first time with O2 (I've historically been with Vodaphone all my mobile life) and so far they've been a mixed bag.

But I still love the machine!
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] jah:
b-biker, friend happy new year and lets hope we have more peace on earth this year. Enjoy your new Exec ;)
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] belfast-biker:
Indeed! Not much celebrating here though - been sick for almost all of the days of the xmas hols here, flu first then about a dozen cold sores on my top lips right now - immune system must be destroyed! My top lip is like Angelina Jolie's, and that's not good, me being a guy! :)
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] austinforever:
Hi everyone. Great forums you got here. Im a bit of noob so bare with me if this question is stupid :D

If this exec is unlocked would it be possible to take an orange pay as you go sim card and use it for this?
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] binary0110:
My O2 Exec was unlocked so yes, you would be able to use an orange PAYG SIM for this. If you want to use GPRS/UMTS you would need to find the correct settings for the phone.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] austinforever:
Sweet. So would everything work normally like voice calls and data messages if you had the credit? Not too fussed about GPRS.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] binary0110:
I've tested it with my T-Mobile SIM and voice calls/texts work fine.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] austinforever:
Thanks for your help binary :)
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] colinc57:
both Birmingham stores wanted £229 on the Data 5 tariff today
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] acetuk:
I paid £199 for mine on the Data36 tariff on Christmas eve in the Bury St Edmunds store.

The phone was at a set price unless I went for any tariff that cost £30 or more each month, at which point it was £150.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] binary0110:
I would try again at a different store - eventually you'll find one where they will let you get this deal. It seems that staff at some O2 shops are unable/unwilling to believe what's printed in the January brochure for the O2 shop (as illustrated in my first post) which clearly states that the phone is free when you join any tariff of £45 and above and £99.99 on all other tariffs (and I would presume that since the standalone data 5 tariff is an O2 tariff then it would fall under the category of "all other tariffs".)

Good luck!
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] citlee:
O2 shop in Swindon says I have to be a VAT registered business to take out any business tariff!

I'm at the end of my current O2 contract (O2 250, £35 a month), taken out to obtain the XDA IIi (I'm still not sure which HTC model this is!) so I'm looking to upgrade.

Enquiries at different O2 stores have had mixed results (all asking about a contract that's less that the one I'm on now)

Plymouth wanted £179.99

Swindon wanted £199.99 or £229.99 (depending who I asked)

O2 customer service wanted £229.99, or £149.99 if I upgrade (hmmm ... no :P)

I'm going to try and get one tomorrow using the Data 5 tariff and see if I can walk away with a shiny new toy :D
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] binary0110:
If they try to persuade you that you need to be a VAT registered business to take out a business tariff then print out a copy of this page:

http://www.o2.co.uk/business/tariffs/inclusiveminutesindividual

and highlight the bit which says, "You don't have to be a limited company to choose a business tariff, just someone who wants to be treated like a valued business customer."

Additionally, if the try to persuade you that it's impossible to take out a data tariff by itself as a standalone contract then print out a copy of this page:

http://www.o2.co.uk/business/tariffs/datatariffs/0,,203,00.html

and highlight the bit which says "O2 Data 5 (With voice calling plan or as Data Only)"

Otherwise just keep trying different stores until you get one where the staff are happy to treat you "like a valued business customer" and let you sign up to the deal which is advertised on page 33 of the January 06 brochure for O2.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] belfast-biker:
That would rule out most small businesses/sole traders then. That O2 shop needs to be taken out the back and shot.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] citlee:
Wow, thanks!! That's extremely helpful! I shall print off both of those and go argue with the nasty woman tomorrow :D

Agreed, and that's the situation I'm in, I'm a sole trader. I am considering a Business Unlimited tariff so I can get free calls to other O2 mobiles. So far they have proved extremely unhelpful, even when not trying to beat the system :D A total contrast to the O2 shop in Widnes, which was excellent; the customer service in there is what persuaded me to sign up to O2 in the first place. I wanted to play with a demo model of the XDA IIi as it was brand spanking new and hard to get hold of; they part-charged one in the shop for me there and then, and I spent over an hour playing with it before taking it home. The O2 shop here claim it's against company policy to do demos as I described and will only let me handle the non-functional dummy model.

Thank you both very much for the helpful info :D
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] michaelg:
Hi,

I'm sorely tempted to switch my Dopod 900 with chinese keyboard to a black Exec with blue back light.

Anyone have a URL for an O2 shop that will sell to an overseas customer?

Regards

Michael
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] Bagpuss:
A big thanks to binary0110 for spotting this great offer!

I went to the o2 store in Yeovil yesterday, and managed to get the deal.

I spoke with the manager right from the start, and he didn't quite believe what he was reading. He reckoned it would take 4 years on that tariff just for o2 to break even on the deal :-D

He first said that data tariffs didn't count as business products, until I pointed out the '£99.99 on ANY tariff' part of the small print. He then proceeded to read and re-read the whole thing several times.

He then tried to persaude me that I really wanted to upgrade my existing account, and offered all sorts of really interesting incentives not to take the data tariff. If it weren't for the fact that I'm going to be using a work Vodafone SIM in the Exec, I might well have taken up his offers.

He finally gave up when I pointed out that my wife was using the existing SIM, so how could she use her phone and me the Exec with only one SIM.

Basically, the deal is in black and white, so they have to honour it. The only time I believe they could back out is if the price is clearly a mistake, and was never intended to be published. There have been cases of this with online retailers offering 42" widescreen TVs for £20. In this case, the retailers are not legally obliged to fulfill the orders.

With regards to this deal, then I don't think that applies, as the same deal was offered in the December catalogue, just with the XDA IIi. I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect that the deal would be updated to use the latest version of the XDA.

If you want to get an Exec, just just don't take no for an answer. Be polite, be persistent and you should get what you want.

I don't think it will be long before o2 wake up to this one, so get it while you can. I had a similar situation 2 years ago, when I first joined o2. They ran a Christmas promotion where any camera phone was free on a £20/month or above tariff. The P900 had just been launched, and guess what, it had a camera. I signed up as quick as I could, and told all my friends as well. I think we managed to get 12 free P900s before o2 removed the P900 from the deal. God knows how many other people must also have got the same deal. You'd think o2 would learn from their mistakes.......

Bagpuss.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] dcroennau:
Hi, just to say thanks for binary0110 posting :D I went to O2 here in Southampton yesterday. They even took off the £50 cashback of the XDA Exec's £99 straight away. I paid £49 for an unlocked XDA Exec and £9.40 a month for a year. The sales assistant was completely shocked and asked more than once how O2 will make any money out of this deal :shock: !! He sold an Exec a few minutes before for £229 with a £17 a month contract! :oops:

Thanks again and a Happy New Year to all!
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] joebongo:
Yep, just got mine (hope it's better quality than t-mob's poor efforts)

I'm gonna t-mobilise it when the baby charges up.

Again, the manager couldn't believe the offer and said he wanted one :P
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] knowsleyroader:
Ive just got a mini with 02 ( non business ). Is there anything to stop me or even my wife ( who isnt with 02 ) going into my local shop and asking for this deal ?

Is there anything they can do to stop this ie put a sign in the window that its now finished or anything or will they have to wait for the feb issue of the magazine ?

Is it available online with o2 ?
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] joebongo:
got no idea dude. I read up on the stuff, went into the shop, opened the Jan issue to the O2 business page (towards the back) and said I want that please, it's a special offer for January.

And now I'm looking at a lovely XDA which is unlocked (hehehe).
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] knowsleyroader:
Dont think its available online as I just checked but could anyone answer my other questions ?

To be honest even if they said I was already a personal customer I coudlnt be a business customer as well I dont see how they could stop my wife becoming a business customer. Its not like the offer states 1 per business or household or anything does it ?
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] SantfeKuss:
I'm both, I have a personal account, and o2 online personal account, and I've just taken out a business tariff, and I'm not vat registered,I'm a sole trader.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] knowsleyroader:
Do you require a business bank account or can you use a personal bank account ?
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] joebongo:
Personal accounts are fine as you don't have to be a business to get on a business tariff. I said I was starting up an internet business with my website and no problems.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] knowsleyroader:
I think I might have to have a dabble at this tomorow. Its just too good to resist. I mean even if you ended up just keeping the phone for a few months or something you would easily get your money back on ebay in an instant.

Nothing to lose really.

Bet my local shop wont do it though. Wont the calls have started to filter through from head office saying just tell the customers its a mistake or they will have removed all of the magazines so you cant show them the deal.

Where does it mention about the £50 trade in for your old phone in connection with this deal or is it on any deal ?

Ive already got an old sony lined up. I have the phone and charger, is that all you need ?

Just printed out the pages with regards to being able to have a data only tariff and the fact you can be a sole trader and dont have to be vat registered. The only thing I dont have in print is the £50 trade in and the conditions and where it applies to this deal.

Where exactly does it mention that ? In the magazine ? If so what page ?
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] knowsleyroader:
Wooooooooo Hooooooooooooo. Just done it in My St Helens branch. Real nice woman dealt with me and knew exactly what the deal meant :D She said one of their employees did it and sold it on Ebay.

She had to get the manager as it was coming up at £229. Here we go I thought and he said you cant have the data tariff alone. I told him you could as it stipulated this on the website. Reduce it as a marketing promo he then told the assistant and £99 it was. Phone trade in came up as a penny and I was gutted but the manager said thats what it comes up as and I will get a cheque back for £50.

Absolutely chuffed. Now the owner of a Wizard that I got for Chrimbo and now this.

Stuck with my Nokia 3650 for 3 years and now 2 new phones in a week.
[JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General] joebongo:
Congrats dude. The blue backlight and black shell set this one apart from the others. I recommend doing the soft reset to stop the ext rom installing O2 stuff and do it manually to keep the speed on it up.

I felt like I had diddled them for a couple of hours after, but it's a kosher deal. Happy days!